Abstract
The use of social media technologies to connect with peers/colleagues is prevalent amongst students and practitioners alike. These technologies are being used to share ideas, content, resources, and experiences for both social and professional purposes. However, modern learning environments do not always implement the latest technologies and are therefore failing to support the needs and career expectations of Generation 2020.The social business gaming platform considered in this chapter leverages the social networking concept in an academic environment. This study was undertaken in order to develop Information Systems (IS) security skillsets through the creation and facilitation of social business gaming. The game was utilised as a part of the continual assessment process to evaluate group interaction, role-playing, competition and learning in an ISS assignment and facilitate the students to measure their own performances of understanding.
TopBackground
Organisations actively use simulated environments to both test (e.g. psychometric) and train (e.g. virtual trading of stocks and case study analysis) employees. Medical and scientific educators actively promote the learning of these disciplines through simulation and modeling tools (Quellmalz & Pellegrino, 2009) but to date social gaming has not been widely applied as a learning aid for business and IS (security) graduates.This chapter endeavours to leverage social media technology to enhance and support the learning and assessment mechanisms utilised in an undergraduate final year ISS module with the objective of providing students with a practical proactive knowledge of the implementation and management of ISS in business, an increasingly important and understudied topic (White et al., 2013). The chapter is structured as follows; the subsequent section considers the area of learning, focusing on the weaknesses associated with traditional learning and highlighting how learning tools may overcome many of these. Following this, the nature of ISS education is presented and the workplace of the future is considered with particular emphasis placed on the need for business graduates with skills in social media technology. The research approach is then outlined. The case is presented and discussed and finally attention is attributed to the conclusions of the study.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Information System Security (ISS): The study of defending information, hardware, software resources against unwarranted attack.
Social Business Gaming: The use of online social gaming as a means of measuring student performance as part of their on-going learning process.
Workspace Technology: The platforms and supporting technologies utilised by Knowledge Workers in their day-to-day work routine.
Online Learning Environment: Online (web-based) channels utilised to support student learning and assessment.
Knowledge Workers: A person with a specialized skillset e.g. software engineer, architect, financial analyst.
Student Assessment and Learning: Knowing what content and skills students have mastered.
Social Media Technology: Technologies such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter which facilitate user engagement and user-generated content.